How Affiliate Marketing Publishers Can Take Their Game To The Next Level

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Igor Gubin is the Head Of Business Development at Admitad’s International Publisher’s Department. He’s been working in the affiliate marketing industry for over 2 years. His previous background includes leading positions in B2B communications, along with 5-years experience in the field of CPC teaser advertisement and content projects. His mission is to help new talented publishers and experienced publishers to realize their marketing potential via traffic monetization and brand promotion in the global arena.

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If you’ve already seen some success as an affiliate marketer, how can you ride this positive wave and bring your marketing game to the next level? Igor Gubin, Head Of Business Development at Admitad’s International Publisher’s Department, outlines how he’s seen some of the most successful publishers excel

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The affiliate marketing industry has certainly picked up steam - just take a look at the numbers. Almost 90% of advertisers state affiliate programs are a key driver to their marketing strategies, while publishers say affiliate marketing drove about 20% of their annual revenue. And with this momentum, the industry is expected to grow to $6.8 billion by 2020.

Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or a large enterprise, it’s evidently a great time to be an affiliate marketer. However, if you’ve already seen some success, how can you ride this positive wave and bring your marketing game to the next level? Here’s how we’ve seen some of the most successful publishers in our own affiliate network excel - and in some cases, earn up to $55,000 USD a month:

They calculate their profit

Publishers have long been enticed by the idea of ‘making money while they sleep.’ However one of the biggest myths publishers believe is that they’ll rack in money without having to lift a finger. While being a publisher can certainly be a side-job - and doesn’t require a constant hands-on approach - campaigns need to be carefully prepared ahead of time to be successful.

It’s prudent for publishers to calculate their profits before campaigns begin, so they don’t waste their budgets on CPC (cost per click) campaigns without seeing a penny. Publishers need to know the price of a click and the approval rate of advertisers. Depending on what business model the publisher is engaging in, they might calculate the effective cost per click (eCPC), the effective cost per acquisition (eCPA) or the effective cost per thousand advertising impressions (eCPM), too.

Unless one wins the lottery, money never just magically appears. The most successful affiliate marketers calculate their profits, and set up their campaigns to run smoothly without their intervention ahead of time. In fact, it’s the only sure-fire way publishers can habitually wake up to see more money in the bank.

They redirect users to other internet sources

E-commerce mobile sales in the U.S. are on the rise, with eMarketer predicting sales will reach $3.3 billion USD by 2021. Accordingly, it’s prudent for publishers not to ignore mobile - and these days, one of the best ways to leverage the platform is through messaging devices. Just consider that in the next three years 2.48 billion people will be using messaging apps globally, and you’ll realize just how important it is to engage.

Successful publishers are always trying to redirect users to Facebook Messenger or Telegram channels; these are channels they’ve created for their followers, in which they post affiliate links or promo codes. For example, a travel website might notify their users they’ve created a Telegram channel to let them know about flight or hotel deals - and get paid for each time a reader clicks the link. Actually, one of our publishers in Spain has created a Telegram channel with a hefty 1.5 million users to post deals and coupons. They’ve found a great way to monetize a messaging platform - something which can earn a publisher up to $15,000 a month, depending on how big their audience is.

They study Google Adwords

In 2016, US companies spent $65.26 billion on search engine optimization, and this number is expected to rise to almost $80 billion by 2020. SEO is a valuable tool for businesses wanting to publicize their brand - however, it can also be a powerful force for publishers looking to increase their profits.

Studying and understanding Google Adwords - which publishers can do with Google Partners - gives them a potent engine to promote their content and make money on affiliate programs. By engaging in the right SEO tactics, publishers are able to get their content seen - and hence, their affiliate links engaged with, to rack in more profit. And the possibilities are huge. One publisher in our network is now making about $40,000 per month using Adwords; they started out small back in September 2016, and even earned up to $55,000 at one point last year.

Evidently, studying Google Adwords can be highly beneficial for a publisher’s bottom line. However, publishers do need to make sure they follow the rules. They must be careful not to go against Google Adword policies - or worse, engage in activities considered to be fraudulent in the affiliate marketing world.

One of the most prevalent fraudulent affiliate marketing techniques is called trademark billing. In doing this, an affiliate bids on a keyword the brand they work for has already trademarked (they trademark so other companies can’t bid on their terms and steal SEO traffic). By bidding on these terms, the affiliate ends up getting unfairly paid for clicks by people who were already interested in the brand.

Great publishers are always trying to create their own, current content to be indexed by Google. This could be a blog on a company website or an influencer’s page on Instagram - however, lately we’ve also seen video become a powerful medium for affiliate marketers.

Publishers leverage video by putting up product reviews on YouTube for items that have been sent to them by an affiliate network. They’ll then place the affiliate links to a few stores in the description of the video, so the audience can choose where they’d like the buy the item from. It’s a win for everyone: the publisher gets paid for promoting the item, the audience gets to hear about a new product from a person they trust, and the brand gets to have their product promoted to a large - and most likely highly engaged - audience.

A great example of someone who does this is Brazil-based Dudu Rocha. The influencer not only boasts a tech blog, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook account, but also a YouTube channel with nearly 1 million subscribers. By leveraging video and doing product reviews, he’s able to ‘influence’ his audience to check out the product links he posts below - and gets paid each time they do with a price comparison model. With everything done online these days - especially in the affiliate marketing world - it can be harder to negotiate contracts and make long-term partnerships. However social settings like conferences can make it a lot easier. The best publishers get out into the real world and attend social media, ecommerce and SEO events.

Conferences like NRF, eTail west or Social Media Strategies Summit, for example, are great events for publishers to attend in the U.S. It’s also worth investigating as to whether Secret SEO clubs exist in their area - these are a bit hard to get an invite to, however, in joining a publisher will get all the market updates.

In addition, it’s important to check out the formal educational resources available to publishers. After all, even successful affiliate marketers need to keep up to date on the current market. Affiliate marketing has become a highly important strategy for brands around the world, and will very likely become even more prominent in the coming years. So the time is now for semi-successful.